6/24/2005, 8:28 p.m. CT
By PETER PRENGAMAN The Associated Press
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Volunteer rescue group members from Texas arrived Friday to start a new search for a missing Alabama teenager in Aruba, a day after police arrested the father of a young Dutch teen already in custody.
Both father and son are considered suspects in the nearly 4-week-old disappearance of honors student Natalee Holloway, of Mountain Brook.
Joe Huston, a diver with Dickenson-based Texas EquuSearch, said the group would start work Saturday with three search dogs and sonar equipment.
Huston said three members had arrived Thursday to meet with authorities and FBI officials on the Dutch Caribbean island where Holloway, 18, was last seen in the early hours of May 30.
"We are coordinating with them to figure out areas that have not been searched," said Huston. "That's mostly inland areas and the coastlines."
Meanwhile, Paul van der Sloot, 52, a judge in training, spent his first night in jail after being arrested Thursday. Van der Sloot became the fifth person detained, joining son Joran van der Sloot, 17, and three other young men. No one has been charged. Under Dutch law, within 48 hours van der Sloot must go before a judge, who will decide whether prosecutors can hold him for an additional eight days.
The elder van der Sloot "is a suspect in the disappearance" of Holloway, said Mariaine Croes, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office on the Caribbean island.
Joran van der Sloot's mother, meanwhile, told The Associated Press her son had changed his story, admitting to her that he was alone with Holloway on a beach the night the Alabama teen vanished — and did not drop her off at her hotel as he had told police. But the boy insisted that he did not hurt her, the mother said.
Anita van der Sloot also insisted her husband had done nothing wrong. "This is not about Natalee anymore. It's about enormous pressure from the (United) States and the media," she said.
"My husband is a man of integrity who has been working in the justice system 15 years and was taken without evidence," she said, also describing him as "the most honest, beautiful man."
Prosecutors have described all five men currently in custody as "suspects." But it was not clear if each was considered a suspect in the woman's disappearance or if some were suspected of a lesser crime, such as withholding evidence.
Croes told NBC television Thursday that the elder van der Sloot's testimony to police in seven hours of questioning over the weekend had not coincided with other reports and facts of the investigation. "That's when, instead of a witness, he became a suspect," she said.
Searches by Aruban police, Dutch Marines and volunteer islanders and tourists have yielded no trace of Holloway, who went missing on the last day of a five-day high school graduation trip with 124 other students. Her passport and packed suitcase were found in her hotel room.
Joran van der Sloot has been in custody since June 9, along with two Surinamese brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18. Authorities also have arrested a 26-year-old party boat disc jockey, Steve Gregory Croes.
Police say Joran van der Sloot met Holloway at a casino two days before her disappearance. The three young men told authorities that they took her from a popular restaurant to a beach, where Joran and Holloway were kissing in the back of the car, then dropped the teenager at the Holiday Inn about 2 a.m.
But Anita van der Sloot said her son told her he was alone with the teenager on a beach.
"He says, 'Mom, I dropped the girl at the beach. I walked with her. I left her there because she wanted to stay there. I left and I don't know what happened,'" she related, without specifying which beach.
Asked if her son had changed his initial story, she replied, "Joran changed his story only one time. I think he was scared because he sneaked out of the house that evening. I think he was scared and wanted to cover other people, too."
She didn't say who he might want to cover for.
Anita van der Sloot insisted her son was innocent and that he was going through "mental torture" in jail.
She said he often was interrogated for more than 10 hours a day, and that authorities turned the air conditioning up high to increase the pressure.
Attorney General Caren Jannsen told the AP that allegations of mistreatment were "not true."
"Everything is played by the rules. We interrogate people in only the ways that the law allows," she said.
Jannsen said the law didn't permit the interrogation techniques Anita van der Sloot claims were being used.
Hasibokos.com received a transcript of an interview with a friend of Joran van der Sloot conducted by a local radio station in Aruba. The interview was conducted in Papiamentu, but just as we have been doing so far, we translated this into English. The friend of Joran wanted to remain anonymous so to make things easier we'll call her (yes it’s a girl) F (riend) in the following translation.
Introduction:
F. has known Joran almost 7 years now. When she was asked about her reaction on the arrest of Joran, she said that she was shocked when she heard about his arrest. According to F., Joran is very bright, good scholar, popular, good athlete and has a great personality. F. said that Joran practices soccer and tennis and was very good at those sports and had already been accepted by 7 colleges in the United States. F. told the reporter that she also knew the mother of Joran, Anita van der Sloot, because she was tutored by her at school. According to F. Paul van der Sloot was rarely at home as he was working a lot.
Jorans behavior:
F. was asked about Jorans behavior on court and she stated that she never saw Joran loose his composure on the tennis court. She was also asked about Jorans reaction when he would loose tennis matches, and she said that Joran would be very disappointed as anyone would be, but he would never burst out and start screaming or show violent behavior. According to F. at those times Joran would just pull himself back a spend time by himself and reflect.
Previous relationships:
F. was asked about Jorans preview relationships and she said that a few years ago Joran had a steady girlfriend but after a while she broke it off (allegedly because she fell in love with another guy). Joran was devastated at the time and just as he would do after disappointments on the tennis court, he would spend time alone and distance himself from everyone and reflect.
While partying:
With regard to Jorans demeanor during parties, F. explained that even though Joran was only 17, he went out and partied and consume some alcohol as most 17-year-olds do. But she added that she never saw him drunk or waisted. According to F., Joran would never use drugs and she never saw him even smoke cigarette.
And closing....
F. was asked at the end of the interview what her thoughts were about the developments in this case. F, stated that the only thing Joran might have done wrong was to change his story a few times and not tell the truth from the start, but she stated that the it’s likely that a 17-year-old would not know exactly how to act in certain situations.. F. believes that even if something bad did happened to Natalee, Joran had no direct contribution in that. Hasibokos.com !